Curious Educators Division
Think.
Make.
Educate.
Our Vision
Engaged Learning
How can we ask our students and campers to take risks, be creative and make mistakes if we as educators are afraid to do the same? Our mission is to give educators the courage to think big, improvise and fail forward.
The Curious Educators Division (CED) has grown out of the insights and practices we’ve developed through our two educational experiments: Tinkering School and Brightworks.
Since the founding of Tinkering School, the summer Gever Tulley first put power tools in the hands of 8-year-olds and built a roller coaster in his backyard, we’ve been discovering how much educators and kids are truly capable of when exploring the unknown together. When you give kids real tools, real materials, and tough problems they become deeply invested.
Brightworks endeavors to cultivate that authentic engagement in a K-12 context. Project work is structured by the cycle of exploration, expression, and exposition that we call the Arc. Educators come to school every morning ready to work alongside their peers and students to co-create original curricular content that is responsive and relevant.
Over the past ten years of exploring, innovating, and reflecting alongside students, we've gathered many insights and practices that we would like to share with the educational community.
Who We Are
MACKENZIE PRICE
As a founding member of the teaching staff at Brightworks and founding director of CED, Mackenzie’s experiments and leadership were key to developing the implementation and refining the unique pedagogy of the school. As a Brightworks collaborator she and her students have sailed railcars down abandoned railways and sent weather balloons to the stratosphere. With her students she has designed, built, performed, brainstormed, danced, coded and experimented. These adventures in and out of school have impressed upon Mackenzie the importance of constantly making, reflecting and sharing. As the Head of Brightworks’ Curious Educators Division she is on a mission to distill and share the Brightworks methodology.
GEVER TULLEY
Gever founded Tinkering School in 2005 in order to learn how children become competent and to explore the notion that kids can build anything, and through building, learn anything. A self-taught computer scientist with no formal education, Gever’s expertise is really in… thinking. Gever has taught workshops and made presentations to both kids and adults around the world. He has spoken at TED, twice, written articles for MAKE:, and authored the book Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do).
BETH ESPINOZA
Beth is a Bay Area native, born and raised in Pacifica. Her interest in photography and travel have taken her on a path of discovery of digital storytelling and design education. Along the way she partnered with various educational communities and media organizations such as the San Francisco Friends School, the SF Film Society, KQED, Common Sense Media, MakerEd and Glide Memorial to produce community-inspired projects.
Brightworks made an extraordinary first impression on Beth in 2012 during a tour for educators as she started up a maker space for a Marin school. She has returned to the community in various capacities as a Summer Institute participant, a middle and high school collaborator and as a Summer Institute co-facilitator.
LIBBY CATZALCO
Libby has been hailed as the most gentle human to ever work in the office at Brightworks school. She grew up in San Francisco as part of a huge family of teachers and educators, and brings the spirit of kindness, true knowing of people, and full-hearted empathy to everyone she talks to. Libby has three amazing children and teaches us about patience and love above all, every day. We could not imagine Brightworks without her.
PHILLIP FILLASTRE
Phillip began teaching as a science, math, art, and graphic design educator in 2008 at Joseph George Middle School in San Jose, for five years, through Teach for America. After teaching core subjects for a year, Phillip was asked to pioneer the introduction of digital arts and sculpture curriculum at the school. He currently holds a Multiple Subjects (K-8) Clear Credential and a Single Subject (K-12) Credential in the Visual Arts. Phillip is drawn to learning that incorporates multiple disciplines and weaves the sciences within the arts as often as possible. Joining Brightworks in 2013, Phillip drew and expanded on his experiences in public education to create his own curated, project-based curriculum for students at all ability levels. Since 2017, Phillip has co-authored and led workshops at Brightworks for visiting educators, as spreading the Brightworks pedagogy to different leaning environments remains a passion of his. Phillip believes in teaching students to be disciplined lifelong self-learners, through collaboration, rooted in the design thinking process. Outside of teaching, Phillip is a practicing graphic artist, sculptor, and event designer.
AARON EDEN
Aaron is an international champion of education transformation and has worked with schools and organizations around the world to “re-humanize” how we work, learn, and live. Aaron works with the Board on organizational strategy and sustainability and supports the Brightworks leadership team. This includes bringing his experience in facilitating high performance teams, in helping schools build self-sustaining feedback loops to make sure they continue to live their vision and mission, and to buffer “human-centered” learning communities from continual pressures to normalize.